Windows Live SkyDrive updated; storage increased

The Windows Live SkyDrive beta has been updated with additional features, …

We've been following the beta developments on Microsoft's Windows Live SkyDrive for some months and watching to see how Microsoft's concept of "cloud" storage would take shape. The service (which is still in beta), was updated today with some significant improvements, as detailed in the Windows Experience blog. The SkyDrive team also maintains its own separate blog, if you're interested in checking it.

Online storage space has been doubled to 1GB, RSS feeds are now available on public folders for keeping track of what updates your friends and family have made, and uploaded files are now tagged with information on who uploaded them as well as the date and size. It's also now possible to add a contact from directly within SkyDrive instead of using Windows Live Messenger or Hotmail. The Windows Live header has also been tweaked to include easy access to the Windows Live Spaces service, and to presumably facilitate moving files from one to the other.

With the beta still considered an ongoing process, we can expect further improvements and possibly additional size increases as well. Microsoft has yet to announce whether or not there will be a fee-based version of SkyDrive that would presumably offer additional storage for a flat monthly fee, or how much capacity free users will have. Either way, 1GB of free online storage is nothing to sneeze at, especially if you've got a number of photos, documents, or other file types you want to share across the 'Net.